Nick Suban celebrates 100 games with Fremantle

If Fremantle’s cheer squad had planned their banner making for the 2014 season straight after last year’s Grand Final loss, Nick Suban’s 100-game celebration would have been penned in for another few week’s time, not this Saturday.

Suban was reported during the 15-point loss to Hawthorn for striking Sam Mitchell, but dodged the extra loading for grand final indiscretions and was suspended for just one week.

Nick Suban will play his 100th game for Fremantle this weekend.

The Match Review Panel thought that the doubling of any penalty it could give would be too harsh for the incident, so it sent him to the tribunal instead.

The 24-year-old missed only the Dockers flogging of Collingwood in the season opener and was brought into the side for the round two clash against the Gold Coast.

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He has remained there since and chalks up his 100th AFL appearance this weekend when the Dockers play St Kilda.

By the time the 2014 season came about, Suban had simply put the incident behind him and counted round one as part of his pre-season.

“I was just tackling pre-season, trying to work on my fitness and strength like everyone, session by session and just go from there,” he said.

“I wasn’t disappointed or anything. I just had to train hard and keep working hard, like everyone.”

The Dockers have also worked hard, developing players who can play a role for the team in a number of positions around the ground and Suban, a former North Ballarat Rebels and Vic Country under 18s captain, is one of several on their list who can do so.

“There is a number of us that can do the same thing,” he said.

“Lachie Neale forward, mid; Tendai (Mzungu) plays a lot of different positions – so I think you have to have that versatility to be able to play multiple roles.

“I think I have been a lot more consistent, but I am just happy to play a role in the side and whether that is forward, mid, back, it doesn’t really matter.“

Suban certainly played his role last weekend against GWS at Patersons Stadium, showing just how versatile he is.

While the Giants were more than competitive in the first half, it was the unlikely Suban who kept the scoreboard ticking over for the Dockers.

He kicked two goals in the first term, and a third early in the second quarter.

“Obviously everyone loves kicking a goal, but really for me it's just working hard and you try and get yourself in the right spot,” he said.

“If you're lucky enough to be near the goals and you get to have a shot, then that's lucky, so it's just all about working hard and getting to the right spots.

“Obviously that's what Ross said (that they want to kick more goals this season than last) earlier in the year and I think we're slowly starting to improve on that.

“We look for multiple goalkickers; we don't just look for the keys to kick goals, so if mids and half-backs can push up and kick a couple it's always handy.”

They did just that against the Giants, with 11 players kicking majors, led by Hayden Ballantyne with five.